Monday, August 17, 2009

Woggy #23: DJ Dress

While on a visit to my sister in Phoenix, we were shopping in this nifty clothing boutique as we are sometimes wont to do, and I saw a t-shirt with a really awesome DJ and stereo graphic. The one I had spied was on the men's shelf, so I began looking around on the female shelf for its smaller more ladylike companion. But unfortunately, there was no ladylike companion (as apparently, there are either assumed to be no females interested in DJ t-shirts, or there are so many interested as to cause a run on the t-shirt shelf...)

I tried to resign myself to the fact that there was no DJ tshirt for me except, I couldn't bring myself to put the shirt down. I carried my ill-fitting shirt around the store, trying to fill the now DJ-tshirt-sized hole in my life with some other fine piece of clothing, but to no avail. My sister suggested I try on the t-shirt anyway, because, hey, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad fit. A hopeful trip to the dressing room proved this theory quite ridiculous. I mean, the thing was almost big enough to be a dress, for goodness-- and it was at that precise moment of course that the solution to my problem became clear. I would snip here and sew there, and turn this gigantor ubershirt into a fantabulous shirtdress.

When I got home from my trip, I planned out my new dress, and even picked a few fabrics out of my pile for consideration as additional yardage at the bottom. But of course, as often happens, it has since been sitting in my sewing cabinet as yet another UFO waiting for it's day of liftoff.

A recent visit to the most awesome indie craft fair this side of the Mississippi, if not the Milky Way, has me thinking all about my dress again, and hopes it will be finished someday soon. In reality, the amount of actual time and effort needed for this particular project should be quite small, it's really just a matter of getting to it. Now, if only I had managed to attend the adding LEDs to your clothing workshop, maybe I could have figured out how to wire it for actual sound...

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:
  • try on t-shirt inside out
  • pin shirt for alteration
  • remove and even out pin lines
  • stitch new side-seams and sleeve areas
  • decide on bottom skirt fabric
  • cut and pin skirt fabric
  • sew skirt fabric to tshirt
  • press and check for fit
  • make any needed alterations
  • consider pockets or other details
  • add other details, if doing
  • hang new dress in closet!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Update: Woggy #14 Complete!

I was beginning to think I'd never see the day, but it has finally actually arrived. I have updated my MOC page!

I was on my favorite forum the other day, where there has been a small discussion about Lego going, and from that I was inspired to get my pics of two of my most interesting original creations together. I realized the logical place to put them up would be my MOC page, and since I was already there putting the photos up, may as well update the home page, and add in those photos and that video I'd been meaning to update, and well, before I knew it, all of this woggy's remaining items were accomplished all in one fell swoop!

I can now check off my woggy to to-do list:

x find that Lego mosaic pic I made of myself for my profile page
x upload my profile pic to my MOC page
x change my front page message to something a little more timeless
x find and figure out how to upload my Halloween skull video, or change my caption
x upload my real-life MOC pics of my Valentine MOC, and change surrounding text
x upload, folder and caption my more recent MOC pics
x start hanging out on MOC pages more regularly and actually try becoming a member of the community...

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Woggy #22: Driver's License

Since it's been a while since I've posted any of my "big" woggies, today I thought I'd bring up this trusty old gem. It's possible that even many people who know me well do not actually know that, despite my ripe adulthood, I still do not, nor have I ever had, a driver's license.

The reasons for me not having gotten this at the usual age are tedious and involve family dysfunction, but suffice it to say I never got further than studying for my permit and taking a rules-of-the-road class at school at that age.

Throughout college not only did I not have any access to any cars, but I also had no real need for a car, since in both college and grad school I lived in cities with excellent public transit, and never found myself at a loss in this department.

After school, living in the car-centric California, I finally decided to get a license, and got my permit. My boyfriend started teaching me, and I was very psyched about my new driving skills, which would no doubt be officialized any day soon. But, be it a result of time limitations, strange teaching techniques, or a general lack of aptitude on my part, we spent the better part of a year strolling around on local neighborhood streets before either of us thought it time for me to actually take the test. This was also largely brought on by an impending necessity for me to be able to share the driving for our looming long-distance trip north to Washington state.

I arrived at my first test day full of confidence and optimism, and could barely wait for my first licensed drive later that day. However, my personal assessment of driving skills turned out to be just a bit overrated (in other words, I failed miserably...) I was disappointed to be sure, but after a few hours I put it all in perspective. Just needed to brush up a bit more, and doesn't everyone fail their test the first time around? California is supposed to have the toughest test in the nation, after all.

With our trip plans moving ever closer, and our boxes beginning to be packed, we scheduled the next appointment we were able to get, which happened to be at a completely different office halfway across town, whose neighborhood I was completely unfamiliar with.

Compared with my first hopeful test experience, the second time around turned out to be much more traumatic and miserable than my first. Things started out hopefully enough, as I was sticking to my "oh, everyone fails their first time" mantra. Being a different and unfamiliar DMV office, I showed up plenty of time early, and got in line to have the needed paperwork processed before my drive test. This ran me into another completely unexpected problem, where I was absurdly told that my non-driver's ID, which had been issued in California, in the same county, just 2 years prior and still completely valid as a form of legal ID, was not sufficient identification for me to get my permanent license.

The bottom line of this bizarre administrivia would be that even if I did pass this test that I was about to take, that it would completely impossible for me to get an official California license until I provided them with my original birth certificate. Having only recently gotten out of school, this document was buried among boxes somewhere back in Pennsylvania, curated by my slow-moving and uncooperative parents, who would surely never get me the paperwork I needed anywhere near the time we were to be leaving the state.

Thus defeated and crushed of all hope by the paperwork Man, I numbly shuffled on to the driving test area, where I was immediately greeted by a gruff and unpleasant man who immediately began berating me for how late I was for our appointment. Arguments of how it was his department's slowness of movement that was responsible for my delay fell on deaf ears. So, things were obviously looking up.

Needless to say, as I pulled into my final parallel spot, my boyfriend jumping into the seat next to me to congratulate me on what he assumed would be my final victory, I broke down in tears and didn't even have the wherewithal to drive us back home. Since this appointment and attempt itself was already an eleventh-hour effort before our move out of town, needless to say I never walked back into a California DMV office again.

Once we settled in to our new urban home, I found little need to drive again, as almost everything I needed was within walking or bus range, and what wasn't could be handled by my boyfriend on the weekends. Once I finally regained possession of all my own legal documents again, I started to entertain the idea of trying to get a license again. I analyzed the situation thoroughly. I was maybe too absentminded a person to know how to drive, my boyfriend maybe an incompetent teacher, or maybe I was the most difficult student in the world? In any case I assumed that this time, I had best get professional help.

I spent some time looking into local driving instruction, but in the end I just sidled up for a new non-driver's ID card and gave up the fight. That was a few years ago now.

As the time has passed, I've realized that I do actually want a driver's license, and I don't have to let myself be defeated by such crushing past failures. I've even found an uplifting kinship with my similarly positioned Spongebob Squarepants, who as those of you who follow his adventures may know, seems locked in a perpetual inability to pass driver's tests, even though he has thoroughly learned how to actually drive. Like my spongey friend, I too hold hope that someday soon I will walk out of that office with a fabulous shiny license that will set me free on the streets and environs of Seattle, vehicle firmly under my capable hands. Like Mr. Squarepants, I may not actually know how this is going to happen, but a girl can certainly dream...

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:
  • research local driver's instruction offices
  • study for driver's permit test
  • schedule & pass written permit test
  • call & schedule driving lessons
  • take driving lessons until they say I'm ready
  • Schedule and take driver's test
  • (repeat any of the above as many times as necessary)
  • pass test
  • complete paperwork and receive license
  • take my first solo drive!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Woggy #21: Game Night Bag

My husband plays board games as one of his major hobbies, and belongs to two local game groups, which meet weekly for game-playing sessions. Attending these usually means bringing along at least a couple of his own board games, plus a snack to share. For years he made use of a sturdy old canvas market bag that we got as a member bonus for being members of San Francisco's KQED. Now we've been living in Seattle for over 10 years now, so I'm sure you can imagine the shape this bag has reached by this point in time.

Last year at the big local indie craft show, I saw some bags that were pretty similar to this and thought it'd be fun to give my husband a board-game-themed bag for him to use as a replacement for the dilapidated old tote he insisted on continuing to use. But, as it turned out, these bags didn't come any bigger than a large handbag, which is nowhere near the capacity needed to carry actual board games.

So eventually I began to wonder if I couldn't make him a bag myself. While I never could figure out how those craft people managed to attach a hunk of cardboard to a vinyl bag, I did eventually find a supplier for novelty game-themed quilt fabric, and bought enough to make some sort of sturdy large bag.

My husband thankfully has been enthusiastic about the idea, but while he was helpful in choosing the fabrics to use for his bag, he has as yet been not so forthcoming about his actual size needs for a bag. Once we can finally work that out, I can come up with some sort of a pattern and turn this pile o' fabric into the fabbest game bag this side of the Cascades.

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:
  • get bag need measurements from Chad
  • sketch up a pattern plan, including a plan for sturdy straps
  • cut fabric to sew
  • sew bag together